John Claggett Proctor

John Claggett Proctor lived his entire life in Washington, DC. He began working at age 15 as a printer, then earned a law degree from the National University Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1894. Proctor was active in several DC organizations, including the Masons, the Society of Natives, the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Columbia Historical Society, and the DC Federation of Citizen’s Associations.

He wrote articles for The Sunday Star newspaper from 1928 until the early 1950s, which were collected in the 1949 volume Proctor’s Washington and Environs. In 1950, he self-published his volume of collected poems, Proctor’s Poems. He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.